Beach Patrons Aid Owner Of Ice Cream Truck Damaged In Crash

Some of Daisy Gonzalez's customers have set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money to buy her a new ice cream truck, after it was totaled in a crash.

Some of Daisy Gonzalez's customers have set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money to buy her a new ice cream truck, after it was totaled in a crash.

(Courtesy of GoFundMe)

MEAGHAN LATELLA

Customers of Old Saybrook ice cream vendor create GoFundMe page to help her a buy a new truck.

OLD SAYBROOK — Daisy Gonzalez and her ice cream truck have long been there for the people of Old Saybrook and neighboring shoreline communities. Now, the people she's served ice cream to for the past 36 years are giving back to her.

On July 5, a Sunday, Gonzalez was driving her truck on I-91 when one of her tires blew out, a family spokesman said. Police reports show that the truck drifted into the HOV lane and struck the median and a light pole. The truck was totaled.

Gonzalez is recovering from her injuries at Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital in Hartford. Meanwhile, some of her customers have set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money to buy her a new ice cream truck.

Julia Cohen, 18, of Avon, said she has been spending summers in Old Saybrook at her family's beach house since she was a baby. She now works as a lifeguard at Chalker Beach — one of Gonzalez's daily stops. Every day at around 3:45 p.m., Gonzalez would pull up to the beach and be greeted by a line of children, Cohen said.

"I've known Daisy for as long as I've been alive," Cohen said. "She's just like family. She knows us by name, and our beach community loves having her."

Steven Anuszkiewicz, 18, of New Canaan, is a childhood friend of Cohen's. He, too, works at Chalker Beach and has spent his summers in Old Saybrook at his family's beach home. Anuszkiewicz had the idea to start the fundraising page for Gonzalez.

"A couple of us were kind of sitting around, and I just said 'we've got to do something, we've got to raise money for [Daisy]'," he said.

The original goal was to raise $10,000. In a little more than a week, the page has received $22,536 in donations from 471 donors, according to the site.

"Honestly, I didn't think we were [even] going to get $10,000," he said. "It just really took off, and it's been amazing."

Cohen, however, said she was not surprised by how much money people have donated. "She has such a strong connection to the community," she said.

Evan Honeyman, 24, of Southington, another longtime member of the Old Saybrook beach community having grown up spending his summers there, offered to help Cohen and Anuszkiewicz manage the GoFundMe page's content. He suggested they raise the goal to $25,000.

Gonzalez was unavailable for an interview, but according to a feature story that ran in The Courant in 1993, Gonzalez first saw an ad for her ice cream truck in the newspaper in 1979. She bought the truck for $200. The article said that Gonzalez had to become accustomed to the long days of the business and to fierce competition from other local ice cream vendors, but she came to love the job.

What her customers seem to love most about her is her consistency — and her low price. They say she has never sold ice cream for more than $1.

"My grandmother got ice cream from Daisy, my mother got ice cream from Daisy, so it's three generations [of customers]," Honeyman said. "Everyone knows no matter how bad a day they've had, they know that at 3 o'clock Daisy will be there and they can get their ice cream and their day will be better."

Elba Schulman, Gonzalez's sister, gave an official statement on behalf of her sister:

"On behalf of Daisy and her entire family, we want to thank everybody for all of their donations and well wishes. Daisy is in good spirits, and is currently in a rehabilitation center where she is expected to be for 6-12 weeks. Once Daisy recovers, she has every intention of getting back to selling ice cream, as long as she can get another vehicle. Daisy truly loves all of the families that she has seen grow up, and she wants them all to know that she feels extremely loved."